Governor Jay Nixon (D) announced Planned Parenthood clinics in Missouri will continue getting Medicaid dollars in spite of the legislature changing the state budget to take tax dollars from the organization. It will keep getting those tax dollars while the state seeks a waiver from the federal government to change Missouri’s health services for women.

“There’s no federal money involved. At this point it’s outside of Medicaid, so I think what they’re doing is … number one I think it’s illegal,” said Fitzpatrick. “This is the day that the budget bills become effective. If Planned Parenthood or any other abortion provider receives funding from that line item, that’s a violation of the appropriation.”

Nixon will be out of office before the legislature is back in regular session, so Fitzpatrick said there is nothing he expects lawmakers can do.

“One option is litigation. I think this is a point in time where ideally you’d see some of the pro-life organizations take the lead on this,” said Fitzpatrick. “The legislature has done what we do, and that’s pass the budget and we put state money in there to ensure that abortion providers weren’t going to be a part of that. So now if the administration is just going to ignore the language or play games with it, the next course of action is litigation.”